Subject
title
Police Statistical Overview
end
Department
Police
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Mayor and Council receive the overview.
Discussion
The Rockville City Police Department uses data to deploy personnel and address criminal activity in the City of Rockville. The evaluation of data can also determine if efforts are being effective. Recently, the Montgomery County Department of Police re-deployed personnel assigned to the Rockville District to other areas of Montgomery County. This has left parts of the city that once had dual police coverage between the RCPD and the Montgomery County Department of Police to be policed solely by the RCPD. Montgomery County Department of Police will still respond to assist in the event of a high priority call for service, such as in progress or life-threatening criminal acts. This has left the Rockville City Police Department to handle 88% of the police calls for service in the City of Rockville as of January 2024. In comparison, the RCPD was handling 71% of the police calls for service during the same time in January 2018. The data impacted during the COVID pandemic, which is why the comparison was made using data from 2018.
Thefts of automobiles and thefts from automobiles remain one of the highest reported criminal offenses in the region and across the nation. The RCPD noted an increase in theft of automobiles by 69 from 2022 to 2023, an increase of 68%. Thefts from automobiles were up by 19 from 2022 to 2023, an increase of 2%. The most noteworthy change in crime reporting was Carjackings. Carjackings have been on the rise, locally, regionally, and nationally. As reported in a recent Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) Carjacking forum, many local agencies saw an increase in carjackings from 2022 to 2023. The City of Rockville had 8 Carjackings reported in 2022 and 3 reported in 2023, which is a 68% decrease. The RCPD has taken a proactive stance during 2022 and 2023 by increasing high visibility police patrols within the City of Rockville. Other criminal offenses in the City of Rockville that decreased from 2022 to 2023 were: homicides (down 100%), assaults (down 8%), sexual assaults (down 28%), fraud (down 19%), narcotics (down 19%), and weapons offenses (down 4%). This data is captured on the attachments.
Traffic collisions within the City of Rockville during the COVID pandemic were much lower as there was less traffic on local roadways. The number of traffic collisions post-pandemic are lower than they were pre-pandemic. The same is true for traffic enforcement data. During 2023 the RCPD added an additional officer to the Traffic Enforcement Unit, which has increased visibility and enforcement.
The RCPD is tasked with policing the City of Rockville with little support from allied agencies. This is occurring while recruitment efforts are ongoing to fill existing vacancies. For every additional 1000 calls for police service the RCPD handles per month, response time increases by 9 minutes. This is calculated from the time the police call for service is entered into the computer aided dispatch (CAD) system until the RCPD officers arrive on scene.
A bill to fund 6 new police officers’ positions is currently under consideration by the Montgomery County Council. The current RCPD staffing level is 64 of sworn police officers out of 67 authorized. We expect 3 contingent offers of employment extended to 3 police officer applicants in the next week and 1 sworn police officer departure in the next 30 days.
Mayor and Council History
This is the first time this item has been brought before the Mayor and Council.
Next Steps
Staff will respond to any M&C questions that are not addressed during the presentation.